Australian Art

From Abstraction To Figuration - The Unusual Journey Of Fred Cress by Geoff Harrison

Recently I found myself rummaging through some old art videos and found one featuring artist Fred Cress (1938-2009) that was screened on Channel 9's "Sunday" program.  (Yes, it's THAT old).

Cress with his 1988 Archibald winning portrait of John Beard

Cress with his 1988 Archibald winning portrait of John Beard

Cress was born to English parents in India in the dying days of the British Raj, but was educated in England before sailing to Australia as a '10 pound pom' in 1962.  Within a few years he went from being booted out of a teaching job and having trouble finding a gallery that would hang his work to being one of the most successful abstract painters of his generation.

Mother And Child    1965

Mother And Child    1965

Some years later, and to the dismay of his high profile backers, Cress turned his back on all this and began producing figurative work.  He went through a personal crisis (which ultimately cost him his marriage) during the 1970's and into the 1980's, which was partly brought on by a trip to New York in 1974.  There he met the leading lights of the abstract expressionist  movement including Clement Greenberg, Jules Olitski and Helen Frankenthaler and left disappointed with the experience.  He was expecting to encounter confidence, clarity and strength from them about their work, but instead they seemed fragile and super sensitive to criticism.

The conclusion he came to was that the problem lay with drawing – "the fact that these artists did not draw worried me. For me, drawing was important because that was where touch lay, where intimacy lay, where your total individuality lay – that was the way you could tell who was an artist and who was not.” 

A Gentle Stroll    1994

A Gentle Stroll    1994

In the early 1980's he formed the view that Western art had lost an important element when it could not tell stories and art students were taught that telling stories was not in the best interests of painting or the artists themselves.

It was in 1988 that Cress abandoned abstraction once and for all and artistically "I became totally myself".  Cress says people who see his recent work are surprised at how peaceful he seems when they meet him.  "I live my anger in my paintings."  In many of his works people appear leashed up, or fighting against the odds and he says that's how he sees life.  There is disquiet, sexual banter, the nudge, the wink and human frailty.

Poolside    2006    This is Cress's response to a recent scandal on a P & O cruise ship.

Poolside    2006    This is Cress's response to a recent scandal on a P & O cruise ship.

Cress likes to observe society as an outsider, even a voyeur and there is always some sinister enjoyment for the viewer who is enticed to participate in the scene.  On the Sunday program, the interviewer (Max Cullen) asks Cress "Why would anybody want to buy them?"  "That's a very good question, I have no idea" was the response.  But Cress went on to say that he made a decision after his abstract years that he would never paint anything that bored him and if he was to earn money it would be by making things according to his own dictates.

He enjoyed considerable success as a figurative artist before dying of prostate cancer in 2009.

Sources:  "Sunday", Channel 9  1995

                "Fred Cress: Figured It Out", Art Collector   2006
 

Conceptual Clap Trap by Geoff Harrison

This piece is called "Between A Cabbage And A Basketball", by Jan Nelson and is included in an exhibition called "Every Brilliant Eye - Australian Art Of The 1990's", currently being held at Melbourne's Federation Square.  Nelson was one of my lecturers at RMIT University when I was studying Fine Art and trying to major in painting during the 90's.  Do you perceive a problem?

In a recent article called "Art For Art's Sake", author Alain De Botton argues that during the 19th Century the "usefulness" of art was called into question for the first time due to industrialization and scientific discovery.  'Those who wished to attack art and its values asked what it really ever achieved, and therefore whether it still deserved the respect it had traditionally enjoyed'.

In response, the artistic community became brittle and defensive and argued that art was too lofty and important to be merely useful.  Art became a cult of "inutility" best loved and accomplished when devoid of purpose.  It was a deeply flawed, even tragic misunderstanding of what art can do for us and it survives to this very day.

A video of 2 guys sawing through surf boards.                                     I can't remember the artist

A video of 2 guys sawing through surf boards.                                     I can't remember the artist

To lead good lives, we not only need electricity, money and telecommunications, we also need consolation for our griefs, guidance towards wisdom, relief from anxiety and a path to hope and broader horizons.  Art can provide these things.  Art is a very practical tool that can help us live and die well.  "Only under a desperately narrow vision of usefulness could art ever be dismissed as useless."  

I see the artistic community committing self-sabotage with this doctrine of art for art's sake in relation to gaining wider acceptance in the broader community and gaining additional funding from government.  "The phrase ‘art for art’s sake’ was born to defend art from unfair attack, but it ended up fatefully weakening it, blinding us to its real role in society."

From the exhibition "Every Brilliant Eye = Australian Art of the 1990's"

From the exhibition "Every Brilliant Eye = Australian Art of the 1990's"

Dealing With Asperger's by Geoff Harrison

A confronting exhibition is about to end at Latrobe Regional Gallery.  It's called Splinters Of The Minds Eye by Neale Stratford.  In this show, Stratford interprets the real world through the veil of Asperger's Syndrome with which he was diagnosed years ago.  

"I explore the gaps between internal and external realities, examine wanton desires and delusional thoughts within the context of everyday reality in the understanding of the paradox that is me."  Stratford's work puts me in mind of Bill Henson but with a powerful psychological twist.  References are made to anxiety, depression, introversion and autism that are part of his daily existence.  But at least Stratford has the ability to deal with his "disability" creatively.  I can't imagine what it must be like for those who can't.

 

 

Howard Arkley by Geoff Harrison

For someone who was never entirely convinced of the work of Howard Arkley, the current exhibition at Tarrawarra Gallery was a revelation.  The key to appreciating his paintings seems to be to stand as close to them as you are allowed in order to  appreciate his technical skill.  His death from a heroin overdose in 1999, just shortly after making it to the Venice Biennale, added extra poignancy to the exhibition.  There is an almost manic quality to some of his work which may be an indicator of his eventual demise.

Melancholy In Art by Geoff Harrison

A 1993 exhibition of Caroline William's work at Meridian Gallery in Fitzroy had an enormous impact on my art, eventually.  I will always be indebted to a friend at art school who recommended this exhibition to me as she obviously saw something in my work at that early stage.  Walking around the large space and with the works mounted high on the walls, it began to dawn on me that there was something happening - beyond the obvious sense of alienation the works created.  I was alone in the gallery at the time and according to one of the staff, three psychiatrists had seen the exhibition the day before and they thought they detected grieving, which apparently was the case.  From my point of view, it was irrelevant what the nature of the psychology was, what was important was the fact that they detected something.  This exhibition taught me how a painting/drawing show could succeed as an installation in that it wasn't the individual works that were significant, but how they related to one another to create an atmosphere you could cut with a knife.  It's something I'll never forget.